La Dee-vina Comedia

What is it that makes left footers look more "silky" with their kicking skills than right footers? It's not just Yze, Green and Salem. Add Kent, Hodge, Lewis and many more. And yet I can't think of one right foot kick that I would describe as "silky" even though there are obviously plenty of excellent right foot kickers out there.

I predict that if we should secure his services, Kolodjashnij will become the most commonly mis-spelt name on Demonland. And that will be an achievement following on from the sometimes absurdly simple (for example, Mitch Clark/Clarke) to the understandable...where are the capitalised letters in vandenBerg's name?

I've been wondering what he might do next. What sort of Masters degree has he earned? (And doesn't he own a shirt with collar and sleeves he could have worn to this event?)

I suspect so, but defenders would have to be able to move at the speed of light because they will be some way back from the end of the goal square (as happens now). So, unless the umpire has called play on, the defender won't be able to get near the kicker. Pretty much what happens now with the dinky little "kick-to-self".

That's a very indirect route for Jesse to take to get home to Perth. The only way I could see this happening is if Hogan is so desperate to leave the MFC he'll go anywhere, and nothing I've heard or read suggests this is the case.

Plus Wagner and Fritsch. You could possibly throw in vandenBerg, too, although perhaps that's Dutch.

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And he mightn't get into the midfield if he doesn't do something to improve his disposal on his non-preferred. This was also a problem for Viney and Tyson, but while neither are particularly good on their right foot, both seem to have improved significantly in the last 12 months.

Having thought about this further, I can understand they wanted to get rid of the "kick-to-self" because it looks (and is) pointless. But I think the better option would be to ban it by requiring the designated kicker to kick the ball from within the goal square a minimum of 15 metres. A failure to do so would be a free kick to the opposition.

Ignoring for the moment whether it's actually Josh Mahoney's call, I completely disagree. Trading (plus free agency) is not about individual deals but the final outcome. By any measure the overall result of our list management in the last few years has been outstanding.

But he wasn't, couldn't and therefore wasn't.

I think supporters place players into two categories. Those who were drafted with early picks are considered not to have had a choice about who they play for and are therefore not deemed to owe the club that drafted them anything. On the other hand, players selected with late draft or rookie picks are considered to have been lucky to be drafted at all, and therefore expected to owe something to the club that selected them. In this particular instance, I'm impressed with the mature way the club handled his personal situation. They didn't threaten him or cast him aside when he wanted to consider his options. Instead, it appears they made him feel that they cared for his best interests which may well have encouraged him to stay.

While I prefer players who can spread and withstand pressure, my taste in cheese is the opposite - I like it hard and crumbly, like a good cheddar. PS: And if it comes out of a spray can, it might spread, but it isn't cheese. It's just emulsified fat with some form of yellow colouring.

I wonder if North supporters would be arguing the opposite? I know Tyson played more games than Preuss in 2018 but on a needs basis, I think it's arguable that we need Preuss more than they need Tyson.

Now that's a novel description, although I have no idea who you are referring to.

There's too much sense in this post.

I'll bet Brayshaw wasn't in Robbo's draft top 50 prior to Brownlow night.

He's one of those hybrid ruckman/forwards, is he?

Hopefully that will be just about every other team in 2019.

And it's never just about a single trade. There are other longer-term reasons to be "nice" to clubs we deal with. If that means we sometimes don't do as well as we like in one trade, it will inevitably even out in another. And Kent and Cyril have four Premierships between them.

Reminds me of the old joke about the guy who went to have a haircut while at work. The boss told him he couldn't do that. The employee said, "Why not? My hair grows on company time". The boss replied, "But you only work 8 hours a day". The employee said in response, "That's why I only asked the barber to shorten my hair by a third."

Actually, I edited my own post before I finalised it. I was going to say "Are you thinking the journalist Mark or the former footballer Russell" but thought describing Mark as a "journalist" was really stretching it.

The more I hear Josh Mahoney, the more impressed I am with him. It's a good strategy to hint that we are looking at other options, even if we're not. It keeps the pressure on Preuss's manager to keep his salary expectations down and also discourages North Melbourne from asking for too much compensation in a trade. That being said, I suspect we really are looking at others. With young Bradtke on the list as a project player, we should also be looking for a serviceable ready-to-play back up option (a Pedersen replacement).

Are you thinking Mark or Russell?

I would say we have no chance of getting any State Government or Opposition support for the proposal before the State election in late November. But every chance in the 13 months after that election (ie, up until the end of 2019), whoever wins. It's in the first 13 months after an election that Victorian Governments make decisions which might prove to be unpopular or which might provoke outrage, whether widespread or from a noisy minority, and whether that outrage is genuine or contrived.